Netherlands Consul General Bart van Bolhuis (left) with show sponsor Phoebe Cowles and Fine Arts Museums Director John Buchanan at the Legion of Honor for the Dutch Masterworks opening. July 2011. By Drew Altizer. less

Netherlands Consul General Bart van Bolhuis (left) with show sponsor Phoebe Cowles and Fine Arts Museums Director John Buchanan at the Legion of Honor for the Dutch Masterworks opening. July 2011. By Drew ... more

Photo: Drew Altizer, Special To The Chronicle

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Collectors Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo at the Legion of Honor for the opening of their Dutch Masterworks collection. July 2011. By Drew Altizer.

Collectors Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo at the Legion of Honor for the opening of their Dutch Masterworks collection. July 2011. By Drew Altizer.

Photo: Drew Altizer, Special To The Chronicle

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Sandy and Kay Walker at the Legion for the Dutch Masterworks opening. July 2011. By Drew Altizer.

Sandy and Kay Walker at the Legion for the Dutch Masterworks opening. July 2011. By Drew Altizer.

Photo: Drew Altizer, Special To The Chronicle

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Suzanne Rischman (left) with Betsy Glikbarg and Susan Martin at the Rosewood Hotel for the Menlo Charity Horse Show kick-off. July 2011. By Drew Altizer

Suzanne Rischman (left) with Betsy Glikbarg and Susan Martin at the Rosewood Hotel for the Menlo Charity Horse Show kick-off. July 2011. By Drew Altizer

Photo: Drew Altizer, Special To The Chronicle

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A whole lot of horse sense at Menlo Park show

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Members of the horsey set recently saddled up in cocktail finery and headed for the deck of the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park to celebrate the 41st annual Menlo Charity Horse Show (Tuesday-next Sunday). All, that is, except for committee member Lyn Jason Cobb, who received a sartorial pass on her jodhpurs, as she'd just competed in a polo tournament.

The show, benefiting the Vista Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired, takes place on the grounds of the Menlo Circus Club in Atherton, where more than 400 of the nation's finest horses and riders gather to gallop.

But none of this would be possible without the dedication of show founder and longtime event co-chairwoman Betsy Glikbarg, recently honored with the United States Hunter Jumper Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.

"Every member of the 150-member horse show committee earned this award," she toasted, with great modesty. "An undertaking such as this horse show couldn't happen without the hard work and dedication of each and every one of you."

Dutch treat: Inspired by the regal setting at the Legion of Honor, where "Dutch and Flemish Masterworks From the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection" is on view through Oct. 2, the van Otterloos just purchased a Hans Bol work that is being rushed to the museum for its premiere.

Oft described as "the most important collectors you've never heard of," everyone at the Legion of Honor last month was delighted to meet Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, the Marblehead, Mass., couple (she by way of Belgium; he hails from the Netherlands) who possess the finest private collection of 17th century Dutch old masters in the world.

Among their treasure trove, whispered to be worth $200 mil to $300 mil, are works by Jan Brueghel the Elder, Frans Halsand Rembrandt, including "Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh, Aged 62," which is considered one of the master's finest within a private collection.

"Our collection began with the purchase of a Jan van Goyen painting from Christie's," recalled Rose-Marie. "However, our art adviser, Peter Sutton, instructed, 'One is a painting. Two is a collection.' "